Hello dear readers,
Thank you for joining me here on Substack! Most of you know me as the person who writes about experimental music, which I do and will probably always do. But one thing about me: I love an adventure and I’ve been on many in my 20s. I visited Acadia National Park after graduating from college, the Berkshires to attend the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, Austin, Texas to write about worlds I had never known, the infamous Jandek mine show somewhere in upstate New York.
I often write outtakes from these trips that live in my notes app or google drive and never see the light of day. That changes here: On this Substack, I’ll be posting the personal writing I have done on my adventures over the years, some raw, some re-edited and revisited. This is something I’ve wanted to do for many years, but haven’t had the time. As I look ahead to my next decade — rolling around in just over six months! — I hope to give myself space to share these words, which mean quite a lot to me and often shape the music writing that I do publish.
I’m also working on a couple book pitches, which is going to take my time away from the usual slate of reviews and whatnot, so it’s nice to have a separate space for pontificating. But more on that later (and fingers crossed).
I’ll first be posting here some words I wrote two years ago in Omaha, Nebraska that I haven’t revisited since. It’s going to be another adventure to open that google doc and find what I was thinking as I looked out that Marriott window facing a Jersey Mike’s. But as I always say: let’s fucking go!
Much love,
V